Pulverizer



Patented Apr. 13, 192g".

Unire str-e;

' iseeez PATENT erster..

THOMAS L. MGKAIN, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALFORNA.

rULvERrzER.

Application filed May 24, 1922. Serial No. 563,350.

.7 10 all w hom t may concern Be it known that l, lnoarns L. McKAiN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Los A ngeles. in the county ofLos Angeles, State of Califoi'nia,'liave invented new and usefulln'iprovements in liilveriZers, of which thc following is a detailedspecification. f

rIhis invention relates to pulverizers for various kinds of materials;and althougl'i the device hereinafter descriliied is not limitedthereto, this particular embodiment of my invention has been designedespef cially for rmlverizing relajively soft or easily breakablematerials.

It is a general object of the invention to provide a simple andeffective pulverizer at small cost and high capacity; one that is notliable to become clogged or liable to breakage, and one that has a longwearing life. These objects l accomplish with the combination andspecific parts now to be `described in a preferred embodiment; referencefor this purpose being had to the ac-` companying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a vertical. section of a pulverizer according to my invention;Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central vertical section of the same.

ln the drawings I show a pulverizer drum made up of end plates 1 0,bottom l1 and top l2. Bottom ll is perforated as shown at 13 throughoutthe lower part of its extent, the upper and side wall portions of thebottom 11 being unperforated; as shown in the drawings. A dischargespout 15 leads from the perforated portion of the bottom shell. Theupper half shell 12 is longitudinally corrugated as indicated at 16,with ribs that extend longitudinally or axially of the device.

Above the drum there is a. feed hopper 2O with feeding openings 21 atits oppositeA ends which -discharge into chutes 22 that leaf down tofeed openings 23 in the side walls of the drum. ln the feed hopper thereis a shaft 24: carrying feeder members 25 which act in the well-knownmanner to feed the material lengthwise of the shaft. These feedermembers are set at two opposite angles so that the material is fed fromthe center of the hopper toward its opposite .ends and toward the twoopposite openings 2l. Adjustable gatesl 26 control the feed throughopenings 2l. These gates are ad instable by means of adjustable bolts ,27

that extend through .slots 28 in the walls of the hopper. There are alsohinged covers 29 for the chutes to enable access to be had to them ifnecessary or desirable.

A central shaft 35 extends axially through the drum and has within thedrum a squared portion 3G upon which e. number of spaced disks 37 aredrivingly mounted. 'llhrough these spaced disks and near their Deriphenies are extended a plurality of spaced rods 3S shown .here as four innumber, but of course, they may be of any suitable number. These rodsprovide means for attaching chain links 39 in the manner clearly shownin the drawings. Atthe outer end of'each chain there 1s loosely hung a.beater l0 preferably made Vof some relatively hard inaterial, .as forinstance. of hard castiron orr steel. The lengths of the chains are suchthat when the whole device is in rotation and the beaters are thrown outradially their outer ends will not quite touch the interior surface ofthe drum shell. as shown in dotted lines in Fig. l. In both the fig.-ures the parts are shown in full lines in their position of rest.; The'chain vlinks are loosely connected with rods 38 and liemore or lessloosely etween `adjacent disks 37'; so that the beaters have a greatdeal of flexibility. It will be apparent that they may drag behind astraight outward radial position; and it will also be understood thatthey may touch laterally (that is, in a direction parallel to the axisof the device) if they strike any mass that cannot be immediately brokenat a single impact. And furthermore they can, to a certain extent twistthe chain links also allowing a certain amount of flexibility in thatregard. Thus as will be readily recognized, these beaters, when thedevice is in rotation, are comparatively flexible and can pass over oraround any mass of material that cannot be immediately broken.

The bearings 40 for shaft 35 are supported on brackets 4l and locatedoutside the pulverizer drum where they are not affected by th-epulverized materials. This shaft may be driven through any suitablemeans as by a drive pulley 42: vand a belt i3 may drive the feeder shaft24: from pulverizer shaft 35.

vWhen the pulverizer is in action material is fed' 'into it in properamounts to keep a lcertain amount always present in the drinn.

break them up. If a lump cannot be broken at once it will be strucksuccessively by the beaters until it is broken up and pulver* ized. Itwill be noted that the beaters and their chains are arranged instaggered relation (see Fig. 2) so that the beaters not only strike thematerial and tend to drive it around the drum but also successivebeaters tend to throw the material back and forth from side to side.There is thus no possibility of any material getting permanently out ofthe path of the beater.

As the material is acted upon by the beaters it is thrown around andcarri-ed around the interior of the drum; and the upper shell half ofthe drum becomes covered with the material as well as the lower shellhalf. This is particularly true of the material after it is beaten downmore finely; and thus a considerable amount of the pulverization takesplace against the corrugated upper part of the drum wall. I have foundthat making the upper part of the drum wall corrugated adds veryigreatly to the efficiency of the machine, both as toits capacity and asto getting a line and uniform pulve-rization.

As the material is thrown around the periphery of the drum, and as itpasses the perforated portion, the pulv-erized parts pass out. The sizeof the perforations of course, measures the maximum size of theparticles; and therefore the size of the pcrforations will depend uponhow fine a pulverization is desired.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim l. In apulverizer of the character described, a drum, beaters rotatable withinthe drum around the axis thereof, said beaters when in rotationextending close to but not touching the inner surface of the drum; thelower' part of the lower half of the drum cylindrical wall beingperforated and the remaining parts of the lower half being imperforateand smo-oth surfaced, and the complete upper half of the drumcylindrical wallbeing corrugated with ribs that extend lengthwise of thedrum.

2. In a pulverizer of the character described, a drum, beaters rotatablewithin the drum around the axis thereof, the complete upper half of theinner surface of the drum being unbrokenly corrugated, thc drum havinginlet openings for material at its ends; the lower central part of thelower half of the drum being perforated, for discharge of pulverizedmaterial, and the two parts of the lower drum half above the perforatedpart being imperforate and smooth surfaced to feedv material down ontothe perforated part.

In witness that I claim the foregoin have hereunto subscribed my namethis day of May, 1922.

THOMAS L. MCKAIN.

